The Trade Desk’s revenue climbs thanks to retail media, connected TV

The company's CEO says the certainty that its platform provides is helping it weather an uncertain ad market.

The Trade Desk had another quarter of double-digit revenue growth as it continues to integrate UID2 with more major players in the booming retail media and connected TV markets.

Revenue for the three months ended June 30 grew by 23% year-over-year. It also had a net income of $32.9 million USD, compared to a $19.1 million USD loss in the same quarter last year.

Jeff Green, co-founder and CEO of The Trade Desk, said the “data-driven precision” the company provides advertisers with a greater sense of certainty in the current economic environment, which has helped maintain growth and customer retention even as other companies struggle with advertiser pullback.

In particular, retail media has become one the company’s fastest-growing business areas, having signed Walmart Connect to test the UID2 post-cookie identity solution in its DSP. Retail media has been identified as the company’s second-highest priority for future growth, behind connected TV, where Warner Bros. Discovery joined the many media companies that have already begun integrating UID2 into their platforms. The company said connected TV will be the company’s biggest growth driver “for the foreseeable future.”

“These dual forces of retail and CTV are truly bringing the power of data-driven decisioning home for advertisers and it is accelerating their shift to programmatic on our platform,” Green said. “Whereas in the early years of programmatic we were looking to find ways to affix data to campaigns, today we use data as the starting point for campaigns. Instead of hunting for ad opportunities with data, The Trade Desk and marketers are starting with data, to know which media opportunities we should hunt for. It’s a different dynamic, and it’s one that’s become more prominent as advertisers seek more certainty in an uncertain and unpredictable environment.”